25 Feb 2017

Nowadays, the traditional measure of success — owning an apartment and/or a car — is out of date. An increasing number of young people around the world don’t want to buy them.

Research shows that the so-called millennial generation, who are now 30-35 years old, rarely buy houses and even more rarely — cars. In fact, they don’t buy super expensive things at all. In the USA, people under the age of 35 are called ’the generation of renters.’

Why does this happen?

Some sociologists say it’s because modern youngsters suffer from financial crises. That’s why people are afraid of ’serious’ loans.

But it’s not the most important reason. **The thing is, the current generation of young people differs from their parents’ generation. They have other values.**

The youth today has **reconsidered the concept of success**, which means:

* Successful people don’t buy property — they rent.
* If you want to be considered successful, invest in experiences: travel, do extreme sports, build startups.

The point is that people now don’t want prosperity and stability — all they want is flexible schedules and financial and geographical independence.

People have no interest in material things

Why own a car if you can take a cab? It’s almost a personal car with a driver. And it’s not more expensive than having your own car. Why buy a house in a beautiful place and go there for vacation, if you can find a place to stay through Airbnb in any corner of the planet? You don’t have to overpay for rent or buy a property in a country you love. The same thing with real estate in your hometown:

*You don’t know how long you’ll stay where you live.
*You can take on a mortgage for 40 years, or you can accept the fact that you’ll spend your whole life in a rented place.
*You’ll probably change your job in the next few years. If you rent, nothing prevents you from moving closer to the office.

According to Forbes, modern young people change jobs every three years on average.

The concept of ownership is no longer relevant

James Hamblin, The Atlantic’s columnist, explains the phenomenon as follows: ’Over the past decade, psychologists carried out a great amount of research proving that, in terms of happiness and a sense of well-being, spending money on new experiences is much more profitable than buying new things. It brings more joy.’

Experiences help us make friends.

Social interaction between people is crucial to whether they feel happy or not. Talking to others and having a lot of friends makes you a happier person. But would people rather hear about how you spent a year in a wild country or about how many apartments you’ve already bought?

Here’s an extract from Hamblin’s article:

’Turns out people don’t like hearing about other people’s possessions very much, but they do like hearing about that time you saw Vampire Weekend.’

Remember that even a bad experience can become a good story. Material things cannot.

Buying things makes us worry.

There’s one more thing. **The things we own, especially if they’re very expensive, make us worry about their condition.** If you buy a car, you’ll flinch every time someone’s alarm sounds outside. If you buy a house and fill it with expensive items, you’ll be afraid of being robbed. Not to mention the fact that a car can be scratched or break down, and a super expensive TV might break after a year of usage. But no one can ever take away the experiences you have.

Every purchase will go down in price over time

Our parents weren’t able to travel as often as we do. There wasn’t the possibility to have so much fun. They didn’t have so many opportunities to start a new business. Therefore, they invested in houses and cars, and we don’t want to do that. After all, every purchase, if it’s not a house or an apartment, will depreciate over time. And if we think about how quickly real estate depreciates during a crisis, then everything becomes even more obvious.

**Experience is the only thing that matters: it won’t go down in price, and no one can steal it.**

WeChat decidedly focused on connectivity, morphing what was once a stand-alone messaging platform into an indispensable mobile portal for making payments, booking doctor appointments, filing police reports, hailing taxis, accessing banking services, video conferencing, playing games and much more.

Take mobile payment as an example. In 2013, WeChat debuted its first payment system. Users can send each other money, pay utility bills and even invest in a wealth fund through the app.

Its parent company, Tencent, invested billions of dollars in ride-sharing company Didi Chuxing (China's Uber) and group-buying service Meituan-Dianping (China's Groupon), so users can order a car or shop for group deals without leaving WeChat.

Over the past years, Tencent convinced retailers such as McDonald's, 7-Eleven and Uniqlo to accept WeChat Pay.

As one American venture capitalist puts it, WeChat is there "at every point of your daily contact with the world, from morning until night".

In a country where more people use the Internet via their mobiles than in the US, Brazil and Indonesia combined, WeChat is particularly attractive to advertisers.

But the reason why big banks, airlines, hotels and restaurant chains have no issues in signing up for WeChat is that the company does not store end-user data.

All WeChat did was open up its platform to an application programming interface, or API. Its proposition is simple - "Your customer's data stays with you. We are only interested in providing the user interface."

It makes sense. The last thing WeChat wants is to deal with local governments, who will keep knocking on its door, demanding access to user data.

This article is adapted from an article written by Howard Yu, a professor of strategic management and innovation at the IMD business school. The original article was published in The Business Times Singapore on 10 Feb 2017﻿

11 Feb 2017

Stop focusing so much on financial and material gain. It is not the only measure of success.

Uncross your legs and arms. Open body language makes people feel less tense.

Include your employees' spouses or partners at work events, social gatherings and on trips. Work is easier for your employees when they have support at home.

Get out from behind your desk and step into the trenches. Sit next to employees, listen to their feedback, and walk in their shoes. You'll see things on the ground that you'll never see from the sky.

Make your values mean something. They shouldn't just be words on your website or posters on your walls. Embed your values into your systems and processes. Hire by them, dream by them, fall on your sword by them.

When someone asks you for a piece of advice, give it to them with enthusiasm and tell them to come back if they need more in the future.

Talk face-to-face. Discussing important matters over email, text and Slack can backfire.

Shut up and listen. Not only to what people say, but to what they don't say. The absence of words speaks loudly when you pay attention.

4 Feb 2017

3 Feb 2017

Hot button selling is one of the most common yet effective ways of selling. Whether you are selling to consumers or corporate, you are still selling to human beings. That’s why you need to press their hot buttons.

When you do the triggers, the sale is closed, and no further selling is needed. But if you press the wrong button, you’ll get an enemy.

This course demystifies hot button selling. It combines strategies from Barry Feig, Kim Hui and Brad Sugars. It will reward you handsomely …

POWER-PACKED CONTENTS INCLUDE:

Problem with most salespeople: lack of triggers

What is Hot Button Selling and how does it differs from selling on benefits and emotions

The 14 Buttons to Press

Five Steps to Hot Button Selling: Uncover problems, Trigger Pain, Intensify Pain, Create the Heaven and Pay them Now